Sports

Young Pakistani pacers can take a leaf out of Amir's book at Gabba

Pacer bagged wickets of some of Australia's best in the 2009 Test at Gabba

Abdul Majid November 20, 2019

PHOTO: AFP

Pakistan Test captain Azhar Ali was seen inspecting the pitch at the Gabba on Wednesday, but he had only one thing to worry about and that would be if his batsmen, including himself, will be able to survive on it.

He didn't have to care about the bowlers. In written history, the problem for Pakistan in Australia has never been the bowlers. More specifically, bowling has never been a problem for Pakistan anywhere.

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But the venue is none other than the Gabba. One of the fastest and deadliest cricketing grounds in the world. And what do Pakistan have to face the music of the Australian bowlers? A flailing batting line-up, which will be relying heavily on top T20I batsman Babar Azam, and the form-promising Asad Shafiq.

The captain himself is a veteran but his inability to find runs during the recent tour matches probably doesn't make him a danger for the opposition.

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Batting problems on one side, the exciting thing to watch during the first Pakistan-Australia Test would be the pacers.

Australia boast the likes of experienced Mitchel Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, while Pakistan have brought Down Under a group of teenagers who are supposedly as vicious with pace as they get.

Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Musa Khan, together with veteran Imran Khan (not that one), would be licking their lips when and if they are asked to bowl on the Gabba pitch.

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However, this will not be the first time that any Pakistani young pacer would have caused problems for the Aussie batters at the Gabba.

Here's Muhammad Amir in 2009 at the Brisbane Cricket Ground doing what Pakistan are expecting their young guns to do in 2019.

COMMENTS (1)

Abdul K Hussain | 5 years ago | Reply It is a common mis-perception to say that our record in Australia is due to our batting. Actually if you look at our performances in the last 20 years in Australia, our bowling has been almost equally to blame. In fact if you look at a few specific test matches, Hobart 1999, MCG 2009-10 and MCG again in 2016-17 it was our bowlers who could not close out strong positions for us. Our pace bowlers often get carried away in Aus with the pace and bounce and bowl the wrong lengths, our slip fielding suffers because of the pace and height that catches come and our spinners have rarely been effective. Yes, batting will be a big test, especially against this very strong Aussie attack, but if we cannot take 20 wickets we will not win a test match no matter how many runs we score!

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